big_papa_geek OP t1_j57vm7y wrote on January 21, 2023 at 12:37 AM

Reply to comment by Theeclat in TIL the Iowa Writer’s Workshop was used to fight communism abroad and domestically from the 1940s through the 1970s, and received substantial funding from the CIA to do so. by big_papa_geek

Oddly enough, no. I saw it linked elsewhere and then I listened to the episode the next day. Just one of those things

big_papa_geek OP t1_j52wsbo wrote on January 20, 2023 at 12:45 AM

Reply to comment by Vaeon in TIL the Iowa Writer’s Workshop was used to fight communism abroad and domestically from the 1940s through the 1970s, and received substantial funding from the CIA to do so. by big_papa_geek

Probably, because what else are you going to do with all this cocaine money?

But also the CIA ( and also businessmen like Rockefeller) just thought it was good business.

“For two decades after World War II, Iowa prospered on donations from conservative businessmen persuaded by Engle that the program fortified democratic values at home and abroad: It fought Communism. The workshop thrived on checks from places like the Rockefeller Foundation, which gave Iowa $40,000 between 1953 and 1956—good money at the time.”

big_papa_geek OP t1_j52vg1c wrote on January 20, 2023 at 12:35 AM

Reply to comment by Aromatic_Wave in TIL the Iowa Writer’s Workshop was used to fight communism abroad and domestically from the 1940s through the 1970s, and received substantial funding from the CIA to do so. by big_papa_geek

“Bennett argues that "Paul Engle, the workshop’s second director, a do-it-yourself Cold Warrior" is mostly responsible for molding Iowa's literary legacy. And he did by soliciting funds from the Farfield Foundation, which "was not really a foundation; it was a CIA front that supported cultural operations, mostly in Europe, through an organization called the Congress for Cultural Freedom." That was just the beginning.”